


Enduring

by kohakuyume94



Category: Naruto
Genre: Hokage Hatake Kakashi, KakaYama - Freeform, KakaYama Week 2018, M/M, Medical Experimentation, Medical Trauma, Mild Gore, Mokuton, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 07:17:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14666082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kohakuyume94/pseuds/kohakuyume94
Summary: Unable to accept the idea that Hokage Kakashi would ever pardon Orochimaru and assign his beloved Tenzo as his eternal bodyguard after the war - I live in the following plot in which a deal with the devil is made to safe the life of the wood-style user, who has begun losing himself to the unpredictability of his experimental abilities.





	Enduring

It was too late. Too late at night. Too late to be sitting still any longer. Never mind the advice of his advisors, Kakashi tore through the dungeons of Konoha, passing through each layer of security, deeper, and deeper, flying into the dangerous wickedness that remained as a final hope.

“Let me through,” the Rokudaime ordered, drawing a breath and attempting to steady himself as ANBU guards unlocked and stepped away from the cell of Orochimaru.

“Ah..” the snake-like hiss breathed its way out into the dark, laced with something like sick amusement. “I wondered when you’d finally come to see me yourself, Lord Sixth... I admit, I’d expected you earlier.”

Ignoring the bait, Kakashi answered, “Then you know why I’ve come?”

A chuckle broke through, strained and wheezing.

“You’ve sent about a dozen different medical shinobi down to chat with me over the last two weeks. What were you hoping I would assume? That you were putting together essays over my work?”

Kakashi grit his teeth.

“Can you fix?”

“Mm, too vague. I might be far more brilliant than any of the small minds you have upstairs, but even I need more infor-“

“He’s lost two limbs now.” Kakashi snapped. “His left arm, above the shoulder, and the left leg, just below the hip.”

Orochimaru smiled, leaning slightly inward. “I see... Go on...”

Kakashi fought to keep his nerves cool, half wanting to rip the villain across from him into shreds, and half wanting to dissolve into a puddle of his own hysteria. Instead, he recounted from the beginning: “He’d been feeling intense pressure and pain through his limbs at night for over a month. No hospital staff could find any tangible signs of an issue. We speculated it might be post-traumatic stress causing phantom pain throughout his body, or fatigue from so much over-exhaustion of the mokuton during the war. Then, he began to lose the ability to focus or mold chakra, and the vines started appearing.”

He swallowed, hands diving deep into his pockets as Orochimaru leaned further forward, devouring the details as if somehow delicious to him.

“Under his skin, twisting lines of root and vine growing down his left side, concentrating in knots, and...” Kakashi trailed off in the flashes of memory - the splatter of flesh and blood, the expressions of absolute terror and helplessness of the medical staff, the unforgettable, unfiltered scream of his beloved.

“Bursting out?” Orochimaru finished.

The Rokudaime nodded, glassy-eyed and somber.

“We conducted the first amputation to stop the spread. His arm. The second was conducted earlier this evening.”

His eyes closed in an effort to try and black out the memory for a moment, and allow him to continue with some shred of strength left.

“There are knots that have now grown over his chest, his neck, and his head. Can you _fix_ him?”

The legendary Sanin member sat still before him, needling smirk still curled over white, thin lips.

Unhinged, Kakashi slammed his fists onto the cell bars, shouting, “ _Will you_?!”

Orochimaru began to chuckle.

“ _Damn it,_ you fucking _snake_ \- what do you want?”

“My, my, what a sight to see... our Lord Kakashi, the legendary masked mystery, sweating, anxious, losing his nerve... you desperation has brought you where you need to be, however. You’re finally asking the right question...”

“You did this to him- _you will fix it!_ ” Kakashi roared. “I let you live, didn’t I?”

Finally Orochimaru stood, uncrossing his arms and slowly marching up to meet his captor.

“Oh, so you’re saying you would have been the one to finally kill me, once and for all? Swallow it, Kakashi, you are truly, and utterly desperate. If I were you, I’d start to be a bit more earnest in my begging - your husband doesn’t have time for you to be wasting in your pride.”

Kakashi released the cell bars, realizing how hard he’d been panting, embarrassed heat springing over his already sweaty face and chest.

“How did you...”

An amused hum answered him, and white fangs cracked through a continually mocking grin as it spread. From the pocket of his cloak, Orochimaru drew out a handful of folded papers.

“Shall we seal a deal?”

—

The Rokudaime slowly opened the door to his beloved’s hospital room, grimacing at the sight of him, pale-faced, with sunken eyes and parted mouth, a tangle of wire and root through his skin, hooked into a wall of machinery.

“My Tenzo...” he breathed. 

Their eyes met.

“You spoke with him...” Yamato stated, observing the broken appearance of his husband. Did you agree to his terms?”

Tears welled under Kakashi’s eyelids as he squeezed hard against them, asking in choked desperation, “ _Why_?”

Yamato offered the best and bravest smile he could, using what strength had to twitch his remaining fingers and call his beloved close. Crossing to the bedside was like swimming through concrete for the Rokudaime, and the weight of it brought him to his knees.

Orochimaru had not hatched a plan of his own, but instead, had been proposed one through correspondence with Yamato, himself - a deal in which the Sanin member would administer healing treatment, and, in return, receive his freedom. This freedom came at the cost of constant supervision, a seal much like that placed over former Foundation members to paralyze his body at the caster’s discretion, and also, the promise to obey any and all stipulations set my the Hokage. Yamato would have a chance at healing, but the snake would be set loose in the wild, and, if having survived the treatment, Yamato would be forever bound to his side.

An hour in the dungeon chamber, and Kakashi accepted the terms, leaving utterly defeated.

Still, a breath from dying, Yamato managed to smile, and explain, “I knew you would never ask me to surrender myself under his knife again. I knew you would never ask me to try and endure treatment to live at his side the rest of my life. But, I know it is our only option, and I do want to live, Kakashi. I’m not afraid. This time, I am not a kidnapped child to suffer the torment of his whim. This time, it is _my_ choice. If I can have any chance at a life with you, I will do whatever it takes. And I did not want you to bear the burden of asking me - so I made the decision for us.”

A dry sob choked Kakashi’s throat, his hands tightening their grasp on twisted bedsheets.

“When does my treatment start?”

“Tonight... he’s working in the laboratory now...”

Tenzo hummed in acceptance, continuing softly, “I love you, Kakashi, and I did not survive this hellish life of mine to lose it right at the doorstep of happiness. A little bodily suffering, a little distance? What’s that ever been to us?”

The Rokudaime was at a complete loss, using every ounce of his will-power against the threat of uncontrolled weeping.

“You are truly...” He shook his head, sniffing hard. “Thank you...”

“So, first we stop the spread of whatever’s going on. Then, maybe I can get some of those fancy artificial limbs Lady Tsunade made for Naruto - we already know I’m compatible with the Hashirama cell - or at least, I was.”

The brunette’s unstoppable smile spread, amused with his own crack at humor to lighten the mood.

“Tenzo, please,” his husband urged.

Yamato simply ignored him, musing aloud in light, playful airs, “Then I’ll set up a little lodging just outside Otogakure. I’ll have a team of guards with me, which I’m positive my Hokage will ensure are of the highest quality. We’ll rotate, I’ll receive any check-ups or follow-up treatments I require, and still have plenty of time to rest - accept visits from my precious husband until he can move out there with us permanently.”

“That could be years.”

“I’m sorry... that I can’t control it anymore...” Yamato confessed in a sudden somber breaking of spirit.

Kakashi hovered hands over his beloved’s face, desperate to kiss away the tear rolling down his sallow cheek. After decades together, suffering and warring through the darkest of lives, clinging to their tiny spark of light found in each other, they now mourned what future supposed to be in the first era of peace they’d known.

“I guess the war and Kabuto’s last tampering really was just too much after all... I’m sorry-I wish I could have been- that I could be-“

“Please,” Kakashi interrupted. “Don’t be sorry. _None_ of this is at all your fault. I’m the one that’s sorry...”

Yamato swallowed his grief, assuring in return, “It’s not your fault either...”

“It’s that snake’s fault...” Kakashi spat, hastily wiping his own face dry.

“And he will fix it,” Yamato finished, locking his gaze in this his husband promising, “I _will_ survive this, Kakashi. We will endure. It’s what we do best.”

“Mm...” the Rokudaime nodded weakly. “Is there anything you want, before-before it's time? Anything I can do for you to make you more comfortable, or...?”

Yamato twitched his finger again to brush it over the back of his husband's white, clenched knuckles.

“Just stay close to me, please.”

—

The evening closed in on the pair, moving them down into a large operating room.Lady Tsunade, Sakura, and Shizune all made their appearance, ready to provide medical aid. Shikamaru came to stand beside his Hokage, and officially oversee as his advisor. Even Naruto and Sai showed up to support and wait in the lobby.

In the final moments before the snake’s arrival, about a dozen ANBU Black Ops took their places around the border of the room, and the presence of five more could be sensed in other various hidden places.

Kakashi had requested several times for his love to be placed under sedation, to avoid distress, mental and physical, but being able to check on his ability to mold and control his chakra remained higher in priority. Yamato was going to suffer horribly; there was no getting around it. Still, Kakashi demanded to be in on the floor.

“No need to worry, Senpai” Yamato assured again. “I will pull through this, I promise.”

“I know you will, my Tenzo.”

He arrived then, silent and smirking, guards in tow. As the seals were broken around his wrists, it was made very clear from his warden that any funny business whatsoever, and he would be killed immediately on-sight.

A scoff answered this warning, and then an accepting nod.

Peering in on his former test subject, and current patient, Orochimaru exhaled an awed whisper of fascination.

Yamato closed his eyes, and his treatment began.

Assessment came first - analysis of vitals, scraped samples made of the roots and knots, vials of blood taken, and an inspection made of the amputation sights.

All the while, Kakashi focused only on the shallow, even rise and fall of his husband’s chest, and the slight and seldom clench of his fist. He knew this was only the very beginning, the easiest part of whatever treatment was to come. Serums would need to be tested. The possibility of conscious surgery was high, and even higher, the likelihood that his beloved's ability to fight through would falter a moment and leave him ever in front of another headstone... So, he watched the breaths - in, and out, chest up, and down, and he pleaded continually for just one beam of favor to shine through the dark.

Orochimaru withdrew to his test tubes to see the effects of his prepared serums on the samples taken of knotted wood, chattering under his breath as he worked.

It was in this brief stillness before any real treatment had begun, that Yamato’s eyes shot open.

"Tenzo," Kakashi whispered, drawing in close. "Are you alright, beloved?"

All at once, the room erupted into panicked chaos, as the knot on the side of Yamato’s neck ruptured in a burst of root and splintering wood, at the same time, a blood-curdling cry ripping out of him andstopping the heart of his husband.

The rest came in flashes for Kakashi.

Trying to surge forward. Sakura’s shove backwards against his chest to move him out of the way. The glow of green chakra screaming out of Lady Tsunade’s hands over the rapidly growing foliage. Shizune and Sakura holding Yamato down as he writhed in agony. His surge to get in close once more. Shikamaru’s shadow technique freezing him in place and then forcing his footsteps out of the room. The last glimpse of Orochimaru demanding his way through, bearing a large syringe of one of his serums and the unmistakable glint of pleasure in his eyes. 

“Let me go back! Shikamaru, release me this instant! That is an order from your Hokage! _Release me!_ ”

Kakashi fell forward, scrambling toward the doors only to struggle this time against his advisor’s arms.

_“Tenzo!! Please!”_

“Lord Kakashi - enough!” Shikamaru shouted. “You have to come back to your senses.”

Naruto and Sai hurried down the hallway in time to provide aid, just as Shikamaru lost his grip. The pair together, wrestled back their former team leader, bringing him to the ground and pleading as firmly and gently as they could in their confusion.

“ _Shut up_ \- all of you!” Shikamaru demanded, pressing an ear to the wide, white doors of the operating room. “I can still hear! I can hear him, Kakashi!”

The Rokudaime stilled, the tangle of arms still holding him tight, with a chorus of panted breaths between their erratic chests.

“He’s in pain...” Shikamaru announced. “But he’s still alive.”

Tears streamed over Kakashi’s face, his mouth parted in his own silent scream.

Shikamaru’s voice dropped with his next report.

“He-he’s quiet now... but, there’s still the heart monitor... He’s stable, Lord Kakashi... he’s stable...”

A sharp inhale split from Kakashi, as Naruto and Sai let their breath go in relief.

“They stopped it?” The Rokudaime asked in strained disbelief.

Shikamaru nodded, and Kakashi crumbled there in the arms of his former students, finally allowing himself to surrender into the torrent of his emotion, and weep.

—

A week passed. The knots had shrunken away, and the vines beneath his skin had rescinded.Chakra flow found its normal rhythm through his veins. The doses of Orochimaru’s serum were only being administered in a half-dose, once a day now. Vitals grew stronger and steadier. A few conversations had even begun between Orochimaru and Lady Tsunade for the building and attachment of replacement limbs. Yet, Tenzo remained in a coma.

Whether it had been the trauma of his neck splitting open, and the subsequent emergency treatment, or a side effect from the serum itself, no one could tell.

Despite it, most everyone celebrated and stayed optimistic. The Naruto, Sakura, and Sai all visited regularly, bringing gifts, laughing loud, and joking that their former Captain was probably just pretending to be asleep so that he wouldn’t have to pay for the hot springs trip they had all planned to go on after the war.

Orochimaru came often, filling out his end of the bargain and attempting to move things along smoothly. Where Kakashi did have to leave often for Hokage business, he refused to be absent from the room a single second that Orochimaru was there.

Kakashi mostly stayed quiet, making his presence known with light touches, and all the aid he could offer - dabbing soothing balm over chapped lips, brushing through messy brown hair, shaving away the bits of stubble that had begun to grow again, helping the nurses change bandages and IV bags, so on, and so on - anything to stay busy.

On the twelfth day, as Lady Tsunade was taking vitals, she suddenly asked, “Will he still be set free, if Yamato doesn’t wake soon?”

Kakashi nodded, not turning his gaze to her, and adding, “The question of ‘when’ still remains, though. Our terms were that he’d help Tenzo heal, but we did not specify how long we’d make him stay in a scenario like this one. At this point, I’m biding my time and trying his patience.”

Tsunade made notes to her chart.

“He seems interested enough in the mystery of it all at this point,” she noted. “Although, I’m sure the itch for freedom will win over eventually. What will you do then, Lord Sixth?”

“Keep my word, I suppose…” Kakashi sighed, still undecided as to whether or not that meant sending Yamato with him for continued treatment, or trying to keep his husband here and hoping his hospital staff could handle taking things over.

“Do you…?” He started, trailing off as he realized he wasn’t really sure if he wanted to know the answer for his question.

“No,” came the reply anyway from the former Kage. “I don’t think you made the right decision, Kakashi.”

Tsunade dropped her clipboard back into it’s slot on the wall, pulling away latex gloves, discarding them, and moving for the door.

“However, the answer to that question is not indicative of whether or not I would have actually made the same decision, were I in your shoes…”

Red, wet eyes burned into Kakashi as she confessed softly, “I wish I’d had the chance to make such a deal… even just once…”

The Rokudaime swallowed, and nodded knowingly.

“He will wake, Kakashi. Keep faith.”

A month passed.

All wounds had healed. All color and life had come back through what had been damaged, translucent skin. All chakra networks flowed freely and fully. The Captain simply remained asleep.

Orochimaru had stayed, content to aid as a prisoner still. One evening, Kakashi had asked him why he hadn’t demanded his freedom yet, and was dumbfounded to hear that the snake didn’t quite know himself.

“I suppose, I’m trying to discover something,” he’d said. “A new skin on this immortal life.”

The sixth week and they went ahead and attached artificial limbs, checking for successful connection through small doses of electrical stimulation.

So, it was the eighth week, that Yamato woke, a whole and healed man, blinking wide eyes slowly in the dark, finding his husband asleep, hunched from a chair with face and hands on his bedside.

Smiling, Tenzo stretched his new fingers to life, turning them to open and glide into the mess of silver hair beside him.

His husband jolted awake, staring through bloodshot eyes, mouth agape and breathless.

“My Tenzo?”

The brunette removed his hand, holding it out in an offering as a tiny twig stretched up from open palm, blossoming into a sweet and simple flower.

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, Senpai.”

“ _My Tenzo…_ ” Kakashi whispered, the bloom being tucked behind his ear.

Orochimaru's words ran through his thoughts, "a new skin on this immortal life," and it settled in a new place within him. 

Never minding any deals, never minding the lifetime of suffering they’d endured, never mind losing their brief chance at a happy, stable married life in peace, never mind right or wrong decisions, fear or future to come, Kakashi, overwhelmed in the strength and bravery of his beloved, for the first time in ages, smiled in full, more than confident at their ability to endure together whatever their lives were to become.


End file.
